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GetYourGuide is a private company based in Berlin, Germany. It develops and operates an online marketplace for things to do, excursions and tours. It is one of the largest marketplaces for activities. GetYourGuide was founded in 2008 by college friends, initially as a way to connect volunteer student guides with foreign tourists in Beijing, China. It shifted to professional tours and grew internationally over time. The company had several funding rounds, leading to a $2 billion valuation in 2023.

History
The idea for GetYourGuide was conceived of in 2008 by college roommates attending the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The students were lost in Beijing, until Tao Tao, who grew up there and speaks Mandarin, arrived to guide them. An early version of the site was released before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. It was focused on a peer-to-peer model that connected tourists with local students that guided foreigners as a way to practice their English. Only five events were booked in the website's first two years. The initial idea failed and the founders shifted in 2009 from untrained volunteer guides to more professional tours.

The company was officially founded in 2009 in Zurich, Switzerland by four friends: Johannes Reck, Tao Tao, Martin Sieber, and Tobias Rein. Initially, the founders earned less than minimum wage. They were funded by friends and family members. The founders moved from Zurich to Berlin in 2013, in order to raise venture capital, but ended up getting a lot of their funding from American investors. GetYourGuide raised $500,000 in pre-seed investments in 2009. GetYourGuide raised $2 million in seed funding in January 2012.

The seed funding was followed by a $14 million Series A funding in 2013, with a $4.5 million series A add-on, a $24 million Series B in 2014, a $50 million Series C, and a $75 million Series D. Another $484 million was raised in a 2019 Series E round, valuing the company at $1 billion. This was one of the largest-ever funding rounds for a European startup. Then, in June 2023, GetYourGuide raised $194 million in venture capital, valuing the business at about $2 billion.

In January 2013, GetYourGuide acquired competitor Gidsy. Gidsy was similar to GetYourGuide, but more focused on a crowd-sourced model for activities. By 2017, GetYourGuide was not yet profitable, but was rapidly growing. It sold 5 million tickets that year, compared to 5 million since it was founded in 2008. This grew to 25 million total tickets sold by 2019. For part of the COVID-19 pandemic, GetYourGuide's revenues was $0, as it had to shut down activity booking. It introduced virtual events during the COVID-19 Pandemic. After travel restrictions were lifted, activity on the site rebounded with the volume of bookings on the site quadrupling from 2019. GetYourGuide started selling activities in the United States in 2021.

Services
GetYourGuide is an online marketplace for leisure activities. It contains tours and attractions, like guided sightseeing, helicopter rides, and snorkeling excursions. As of 2023, it had about 118,000 activities from 18,000 businesses. Generally, the activities are operated by third-parties that pay GetYourGuide a commission for each booking. However, the company started selling GetYourGuide-branded events called "Originals" in the 2020s. GetYourGuide removes activities that consistently get negative reviews. The first GetYourGuide mobile app was released in October 2013. As of 2023, GetYourGuide is investing heavily in expanding in the U.S. market and integrating artificial intelligence into the site. ChatGPT was integrated in 2023.